Farina watched on from the stands having arrived at the club on Friday, and while caretaker coach Steve Corica was officially in charge, the new coach was seen dishing out instructions in the sheds at halftime as he prepares to take charge next week.

The former Socceroos coach would have taken several positives from an improved performance, not least the fact the last-placed Sky Blues finally plugged a leaky defence which had let in 15 goals in the previous four games.

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Farina, though, would have some concerns that star playmaker Alessandro Del Piero failed to finish the match with the Italian substituted with 20 minutes to go, apparently a precautionary measure due to his troublesome hamstrings.

Both sides were affected by Socceroos duty with the Heart missing Richard Garcia, Aziz Behich and Michael Marrone and Sydney FC without Brett Emerton and Terry Antonis.

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It opened the door for teenager Hagi Gligor to make his first start for Sydney while Corica also handed a debut in goals to Vedran Janjetovic as Ivan Necevski was dumped to the bench.

Heart's Josip Tadic and Sydney's Yairo Yau wasted good early opportunities as both sides traded blows in the opening exchanges.